When a highway threatened the spirits' storied lair in County Clare, Eddie Lenihan leapt to its defense.

To be sure, Eddie Lenihan enjoys his pint. But the County Clare folklorist swears he was stone-cold sober - and this is no blarney - when he stirred up a tempest over a thornbush this spring. He lobbied to save a 15-foot hawthorn from being uprooted during highway construction on the grounds that it was a "fairy bush." (Irish tradition links hawthorns to spirits, who, legend also has it, may exact a nasty revenge on anyone who tampers with their timber.) "I've taken many people to see this tree," says Lenihan, 48, explaining his letter of protest to the county council. "I feel a responsibility for it."

So, it seems, did a number of other County Clareans who phoned local radio stations in support. Whether it was this popular groundswell - or fear of the fairies' retribution - the county recently assured Lenihan that the tree would be incorporated into the highway landscaping and remain unscathed.

Although the prized bush would appear to be out of the woods, Lenihan is not about to rest on his, er, hawthorn. The Limerick high school English teacher and father of six has set himself a much more ambitious preservation project - to keep alive the old Irish tales of magic, mystery and the underworld that he has already compiled in nine books. "We are losing our tradition," says Lenihan, who allows that he has yet to clap eyes on any fairies himself.

"And if you have no magic in your life, you're in a sad place."

 

Reprinted from PEOPLE Weekly's August 23, 1999 issue by special permission; © 1999 Time Inc. All rights reserved.